


you're my muse

by ackermanx



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Gen, Other Characters Are Mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-27
Updated: 2018-02-27
Packaged: 2019-03-24 18:33:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13817028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ackermanx/pseuds/ackermanx
Summary: sometimes, Natsu is scared of her older brother.not bad scared. but sometimes she'd look out the window of her bedroom in the middle of the night and she'd see Shouyou outside throwing his volleyball up and down and she'd think /he must love volleyball a lot to spend so much time with it./Natsu thinks she understands. but that doesn't make his dedication any less scary.





	you're my muse

**Author's Note:**

> this was my piece for the wonderful hq siblings zine a while ago, the full thing is here !! https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ToI4Jp2dtSNyw3nm41J_0VzUL4CdBgAY/view

Sometimes, Natsu is scared of her older brother.

 

Not like  _ bad _ scared. But sometimes she'd look out the window of her bedroom in the middle of the night and she'd see Shouyou outside throwing his volleyball up and down and she'd think  _ he must love volleyball a lot to spend so much time with it. _

 

Natsu thinks she understands. But that doesn't make his dedication any less scary.

 

* * *

 

 

"Mama?" she mumbles through a mouthful of rice one night. "Why's Shouyou so fired up all the time?"

 

Shouyou pauses mid-bite, an indignant noise building up in the back of his throat.

 

"Both of you, chew first."

 

Their mother looks on with amusement as both siblings stare at each other intensely across the table, shoveling food into their mouths as fast as they can.

 

Natsu takes a last gigantic bite of rice, sticks out her tongue in victory, and opens her mouth again. "So why  _ is _ Shouyou so fired up all the time?"

 

"'Cause volleyball's fun, that's why!" Shouyou beams. "You know what feeling you get when you're doing something you really love and it's like the best feeling in the world?"

 

"Uh…"

  
  
Natsu furrows her eyebrows in an attempt to recall any sort of related feelings in her life so far. "No? Not really."

 

"Right, you're probably still too young for that. But trust me! You'll be all like, I never ever want to stop doing this ever? And you don't know who you'd be without it? That's when you know you've found something you love. You'll get there someday, I promise you!"

 

Squeaking indignantly when Shouyou reaches over to ruffle her hair  _ hard _ , Natsu lets a bemused smile take over her face. 

 

(She couldn't quite say she understood completely yet, but maybe being so invested in something wasn't as bad as she thought it would be.)

 

* * *

 

 

"Natsu! Hey, Natsu!"

 

Natsu blinks, staring at her brother who was standing in the doorway of her room, volleyball in hand and a bright grin on his face, and wonders why he was upside-down.

 

_ Right, handstand,  _ she thinks to herself, and falls butt-first back onto her bed.

 

"Nii-san? Did you need something?"

 

"Are you busy?" he says instead.

 

"No, but…"

 

"Perfect! C'mon, follow me. I wanna show you something."

 

And with that, Shouyou disappears as suddenly as he had appeared.

 

If anything, that just made Natsu more curious. The only (and yes,  _ only _ ) two things that could get her brother excited like that were volleyball and discovering something "cool" that he wanted to show to either her or to Mom.

 

(Although it was frequently both; Natsu would often stare in awe and confusion as Shouyou demonstrated some new volleyball move he had learned that day, while Mom pat her head and flashed her smiles that meant  _ I know you can't understand volleyball at all, but this is your brother's life so just bear with it for a little longer. _ )

 

There was no Mom this this time to try and get Shouyou to do his school work; she was working late today again, and besides, there was no guarantee that Mom would have succeeded, anyway. So Natsu picks herself up from the futon, yawns once or twice, and follows Shouyou's footsteps through the hallway, down the steps, and out the front door.

 

"Over here!" he calls, and Natsu gives herself a minute to adjust to the lighting change before even moving her head. "Although you can stay where you want for now, there's nothing I have for you to do. Yet."

 

"What are you gonna do?"

 

"You'll see."

 

Shouyou tosses his ball up and down, nervously ( _ nervously? that's unlike him _ ) glancing at Natsu. "Listen, uh...I know you're not the most interested in volleyball and honestly might never be but - ! I thought it might be nice if I sort of taught you a few things so you're not completely clueless. And you do like physical activity stuff, right?"

 

"Uh-huh! So I can try doing what you do every day?"

 

"Exactly!" Shouyou beams at Natsu, and she thinks that maybe she should have asked him to do this much sooner. "So - here's the basic stuff…"

 

(Later that night, when their mother does get home, she pauses in the driveway long enough to hide a soft smile before calling both tired children indoors for dinner.)

 

* * *

 

 

"This is it?"

 

Takinoue laughs, leans down to ruffle Natsu's hair. "Believe me, Hinata-kun, this is more than just  _ it _ . This is - "

 

He pauses, clearing his throat and putting on a more dramatic voice.

 

" - the volleyball competition of the  _ century. _ "

 

Natsu sniffs, trying to resist the urge to wipe her runny nose on her shirt sleeve. "But it doesn't look that much different from any of Nii-san's other games."

 

"True! But haven't you noticed? The place seems just a little bigger, the people are from all over Japan, the air is full of tension - "

 

"Oi, the match is starting." Shimada leans forward, hands Takinoue and Natsu the same homemade noisemakers they had used just a few months ago, when the Karasuno Cheering Squad ™ had consisted of barely twenty people. "Wouldn't want to miss the 'competition of the century,' would you?"

 

"Shut  _ up _ ."

 

Practically trembling on the inside with excitement, Natsu lets her eyes drift from the two adults caught up in friendly bickering to the volleyball court below, where both teams participating in the upcoming match were indeed starting to filter onto the court. Her eyes immediately locked onto a bright speck of orange -  _ that had to be Shouyou _ , she thinks as she waves furiously - grins when Shouyou notices and sends a thumbs up in her direction.

 

And as the match begins, Natsu thinks she finally understands - after all, who wouldn't fight in order to continue doing what they loved?

 

("And now, onto the court, comes Karasuno High School, who have risen from the dust with victory after stunning victory - to put it another way, the flightless crows are flightless no more!")

**Author's Note:**

> come yell at me on twitter @axlotlols (mostly fe now though rip)


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